Parent & Family Information

Living on-campus at UConn can be an exciting and rewarding experience for both students and their families. We have included links and resources below that will help answer the most frequently asked questions by families of our residents. If you can’t find the answer to your question, feel free to email livingoncampus@uconn.edu.

Parent Guides

Residential Life Staff

Resident Assistants (RAs) are paraprofessional student staff. There are approximately 284 RAs in the residential areas of campus. RAs are typically undergraduates, although some are graduate students. RAs are located on the residential floor and have re¬ceived special training relative to student needs, campus resources, conflict resolution, and overall University policies and procedures.

Assistant Residence Hall Directors (ARHDs) are graduate students enrolled in the Higher Education Student Affairs Master’s program at UConn. They live in apartments in the residence halls and provide support to the Hall/Community Director or Assistant Director in the overall administration of services provided to students in the respective hall or area.

Hall Directors (HDs) or Community Directors (CDs) are full-time professional staff who hire, train, and supervise the RAs and ARHDs. Most of these staff members have prior residence hall experience and Master’s degrees. They live on-campus and have offices in the areas for which they are responsible. The HDs/CDs members serve as campus resources, educators, advisors, and student conduct officers.

Assistant Directors of Residence Education are full-time professional staff with Master’s degrees and five or more years of full-time residence hall experience. The Assistant Director is responsible for a complex of approximately 2,500 students, 3-6 HDs/CDs and approximately 60 RAs. The Assistant Director works with and through his/her staff to better connect students to each other and UConn.

Getting Along with a Roommate

Roommate conflicts are natural and healthy. Living in the residence halls at any university is learning to live with a roommate. This experience will help your student to learn essential skills like communication and boundary setting. We have systems in place to address roommate concerns. You can help this process by challenging your student to actively work through the issues, instead of avoiding them or looking for easy answers. Changing roommates is often not the best solution, so helping your student seek alternative solutions, will enhance the learning that can come from this experience. There is a Resident Assistant (RA) on each floor, who has been trained to handle roommate issues. Your student can also ask for assistance from the full-time professional staff member, the Hall Director or Community Director. Students can find their Hall/Community Director contact information on the web page for their hall/area.